When is a beer not ale or hearty?

A required but unwanted move to non-alcoholic beverages has caused me to examine more closely what these drinks entail. And to a degree it is not an enticing view.

The first point to make of course is that the practice of 'brewing' ale was an early way to make a potable drink from water that was decidedly not potable.

And the second is that until sugar was readily available the only way to make alcohol was by fermenting honey - and that is called mead.

So how does your alcohol free beer or wine get to be that way? The immediate assumption is that since ethane (the alcohol in most drinks) boils at under 80C you could just make your brew, heat it gently to that level and the alcohol will obligingly disappear. However experience has shown that along with it will go much - too much- of the flavours.

And if the temperature gets at all too high your product will taste 'cooked'.

What set me off on this was a claim on the side of a can of alco-free IPA from a highly respected brewer that said this: "Brewed with no alcohol from the start". Now that my friends is marketing rowlocks of the highest order.
The brewer takes yeast, sugar, various cereals to taste, hops and makes a must which ferments to turn the sugar to alcohol. No one ever starts out with any alcohol at all. Ever. Winemakers do much the same but with grapes.

So I inquired further. For a start my IPA does not appear to have troubled the brewmaster. The ingredients list everything but yeast and sugar... so... no alcohol was ever anywhere near this product at all.

 
That's good. But then what am I actually drinking?

 
Its a complex cordial. It costs not far short of a proper beer.

The brewer pays no duty.

He makes a ruddy fortune.

Its a rip off.